Georgia on Edge: Ruling Party Frames Election as ‘Good vs. Evil’

As Georgia heads toward municipal elections on October 4, the political climate has reached a fever pitch, with the ruling party framing the vote as a decisive battle for the nation’s future. Authorities are preparing for a “final battle between good and evil,” they claim, to solidify the republic’s sovereignty, while the opposition, much of which is boycotting the vote, plans major protests in the capital.

The founder of the ruling “Georgian Dream” party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has mobilized his supporters by invoking the memory of their landmark victory 13 years ago, which ousted the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. He declared that the 2012 win marked a “watershed moment” separating authoritarianism from democracy and national sovereignty. According to Ivanishvili, the upcoming election is another critical test to protect those gains from an opposition that seeks to “return Georgia to the past, to stagnation and subordination to foreign interests.”

The political landscape is starkly divided. Most opposition parties have chosen to ignore the polls, leaving only “Lelo” and “Gakharia for Georgia” as the main challengers to Georgian Dream. The run-up to the election has been marked by the imprisonment of several prominent government critics on various charges. Despite this, their allies have vowed to hold indefinite protests in the center of Tbilisi on voting day, a move the government has labeled as another attempted coup, with security officials warning of a “very severe but lawful response.”

This election will see a significantly diminished international observer presence. Citing a prolonged conflict between Tbilisi and Western nations, key monitoring bodies such as the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), as well as delegations from the United States and the European Parliament, will be absent. This is a sharp contrast to the 2021 elections. Instead, observers will include a large delegation from a Serbian organization and representatives from the embassies and election commissions of countries like Armenia, the UK, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

However, not all opposition figures agree on the strategy. Giorgi Gakharia, a former prime minister under Georgian Dream who now leads an opposition party from abroad, has suggested that the narrative of a “peaceful revolution” may have been engineered by the ruling party itself to discredit its opponents. He argued that for 13 years, Saakashvili’s party has offered only “empty promises and shouting,” which ultimately benefits the government. “We are now observing an artificially directed scenario where a powerful movement… is being saddled with the slogan of a coup led by discredited leaders,” Gakharia stated.

Political analyst Petre Mamradze concurs, noting that radical calls for revolution do more harm to the opposition than good. He believes Gakharia is strategically positioning himself to attract former government supporters who have become disillusioned. While Georgian Dream remains popular, Mamradze predicts a muted outcome for the planned protests. “A few thousand people will take to the streets, but there won’t be a big show. Security forces have prepared in advance, and ordinary citizens are tired of protests,” he concluded.